A Shift in the Air
‘But I can't let my guard down.’ Keeping his tension coiled tight, Jekyeong crept silently behind the beast. Once he was close enough—just as the creature, face buried in its meat, twitched with a sudden sense of unease—he lunged. The movement was flawless, honed by survival, and utterly natural. Springing forward like a tightly wound coil suddenly released, he opened his maw wide and aimed straight for the nape of the boar-like beast.
He had no illusions of tearing its throat out in a single bite. He doubted whether his teeth, sharp but still relatively small, could even pierce the beast's thick hide and coarse fur. Even if they did, the creature's neck was nearly as thick as its torso; a bite would be nothing more than a minor sting.
"Squeeeal!" Thus, his teeth served merely as an anchor. Jekyeong’s body, stretching over four meters long, rapidly coiled around the boar. But the beast's torso was so thick he couldn't even manage a full wrap, preventing him from exerting his full strength. At best, he could only muster seventy or eighty percent of his power.
Thud! Ambushed out of nowhere, the wild boar shrieked savagely and slammed its body against a tree. It was a desperate attempt to shake Jekyeong off, but it barely registered as a blow to him. At most, it left a dull ache. Marveling anew at the sheer durability of his own body, Jekyeong squeezed even harder. As the boar thrashed and exhausted itself, constricting it became much easier.
Thud! Thud! The frenzied boar slammed itself against trees and rocks repeatedly, but Jekyeong held fast. Eventually, the violent resistance and savage squeals began to weaken. Yet, Jekyeong did not let his guard down, maintaining his crushing grip. He knew that in a fight like this, calmness and patience were his greatest weapons.
"Squeee..." Completely drained, the boar finally collapsed. The strength drained from its desperately resisting frame. Sensing his moment, Jekyeong poured every ounce of his remaining strength into the squeeze. With a sickening crack, bones shattered, and the exhausted boar let out one final, dying gasp.
Even after confirming that the limp boar had stopped breathing, Jekyeong did not relax his grip or let his guard down for several minutes. It was born of fear rather than mere caution. How many nights had he spent shivering in anxiety because of this wretched beast? He felt a surge of joy, yet he could hardly believe that the tyrant of this territory had finally become his prey.
Once his racing heart settled, Jekyeong slowly and carefully uncoiled his body. He sank his teeth into the cooling boar's neck, biting down again and again. His serrated teeth were small but incredibly sharp. After clamping his jaws shut a few times, the thick, tough neck was thoroughly shredded. He wanted nothing more than to carry the carcass up into the safety of the canopy, but unfortunately, there were no trees nearby sturdy enough to support such weight.
Left with no choice, Jekyeong began to gorge himself right there on the forest floor. Though the hunt itself had been brief, the sheer tension and physical exertion had left him ravenous. He chewed and swallowed, the meat sliding down his throat effortlessly. By the time he snapped out of his eating frenzy, only half of the massive carcass remained. Even so, carrying the rest up a tree still seemed impossible.
‘What should I do?’ His body already felt heavy. If he forced himself to eat any more, indigestion would be the least of his worries; he might not even be able to climb a tree. Yet, he didn't dare settle down on the ground. Just because he had killed the local tyrant didn't mean he could suddenly sleep out in the open. There was no telling what kind of unimaginable danger might leap out at any moment. Take this mutated boar, for instance—could it ever have predicted that the very snake it had so easily chased away not long ago would end up tearing its throat out?
‘No choice then.’ A single hoarded meal versus a safe place to sleep. Once he cast aside his lingering greed, the choice was simple. Dragging his heavy body, Jekyeong skillfully slithered up a tree. Not long after he departed, various beasts drawn by the scent of blood gathered, snarling and fighting over the flesh of the creature that had once ruled them with terror.
After successfully hunting down the wild boar—the most immediate threat to his survival—Jekyeong naturally began to relax. Though his rational mind knew he had to remain vigilant, his newly confident heart thought otherwise. At one point, unable to find a suitable tree to rest in, he actually considered hollowing out a tree trunk to spend the night. But then, he remembered his parent in this life. He recalled how that monstrous serpent, which looked like it could withstand a direct hit from a self-propelled howitzer, had been brought down by just two humans. This world was a terrifyingly unpredictable place. If he foolishly let his guard down and lived carelessly, he could lose his life at any moment, in any place.
‘Get a grip. Focus.’ As he shook off his complacency, a practical problem reared its head. In truth, it wasn't sheer laziness that had driven him to look for a hollow trunk. He had simply run out of trees in this area capable of supporting his growing bulk.
‘I need to find a solution.’ He either had to find larger, sturdier trees that could bear his weight, or find a more permanent shelter. Something like the cave where he had first hatched.
‘In terms of location, that cave really was perfect...’ There were no threatening beasts nearby, and the cave was just the right size for sleeping. That was likely why his parent had laid its eggs there in the first place.
‘But... it's too risky.’ That cave had already been discovered. Even if cultivators were unlikely to return to a nest they had already cleared, there was always a chance. Jekyeong refused to leave his survival to luck.
‘Whatever I do, I have to move.’ At the very least, there was no longer any place in this area where he could rest in peace. There was also a distinct lack of prey large enough to satisfy his appetite. One way or another, this territory was no longer fit for him.
Jekyeong resolved to relocate his hunting grounds, but the question was where to go. Even climbing to the very top of the tallest trees yielded no clues; in every direction, nothing but an endless canopy of dense foliage met his gaze. He couldn't even tell if he was in a forest or a mountain range. By the standards of his past life, he would have guessed he was in the middle of a massive mountain range, but in a world where snakes grew to the size of skyscrapers, a forest as vast as a mountain range was hardly out of the question. Whatever the case, the most important fact was that this place was unimaginably vast.
Since every direction was equally daunting, making a choice was actually simple. In fact, it was more accurate to say there was no choice to make. Jekyeong picked a direction at random and began to move. Fortunately, his sense of direction was excellent, allowing him to slither in a straight line without getting lost.
Though darkness fell, the forest was far from silent. The rhythmic cries of unidentified birds and insects echoed through the night, accompanied by the loud rustling of the wind. Jekyeong pressed on, masking his presence in the ambient noise. Then, at some point, he felt a shift. The common phrase "the air changed" came naturally to mind. He couldn't explain why. He simply felt it.
Jekyeong halted and surveyed his surroundings. The trees around him seemed slightly larger. And... though he couldn't be certain, their color seemed to have shifted as well.
‘Are they... slightly redder?’ While his eyes could easily distinguish shapes in the dark, they didn't grant him perfect daylight vision. He suspected the bark had changed color, but he couldn't be sure.
As he moved forward with heightened vigilance in this subtly altered environment, a sudden, violent gust of wind swept through, followed by a deafening shriek.
‘Above?’ Holding his breath, Jekyeong slipped behind a tree. Peeking out and looking up, he saw leaves raining down in torrents. Branches, sprawling like spiderwebs, bent and twisted as if about to snap. It looked as though a typhoon had hit, but the continuous, monstrous shrieks suggested a very different cause.
‘There are two of them.’ At first, the cries sounded similar, but they were distinctly different. One carried a desperate, pain-filled agony, while the other was purely savage. An indescribable power vibrated within those shrieks. Jekyeong was instantly reminded of the time he had huddled, trembling, inside the cave.
"Skreeee!" Suddenly, amidst the violent flapping of wings, a bird plummeted from the canopy. Even with its wings folded, its torso alone was as large as the wild boar he had just hunted. Covered in wounds, it crashed into the earth with enough force to gouge a crater, its body twitching violently.
Before the dust kicked up by the crash could even settle, another bird came hurtling down with a sharp "Screech!" It possessed a long, razor-sharp beak that resembled a blade, and its massive frame rivaled that of the fallen bird. Using its sharp beak as a weapon, it pinned the first bird to the ground.
*Thwack!* The beak plunged like a stake, skewering the fallen bird's body. The victim convulsed violently, thrashed a few times, and then went still. The long-beaked victor raised its head, blood dripping from its razor-sharp beak.
*Flap!* The long-beaked bird snatched up the carcass of its prey and took flight with a powerful beat of its wings. The majestic aura of a victor radiated from its movements. A single flap was all it took to launch itself from the ground back into the high heavens.
Jekyeong remained frozen, holding his breath until the long-beaked bird had finished its hunt and soared away. Only when the sound of flapping wings completely faded did he finally exhale.
‘I really can't let my guard down for even a second.’ Though it had been brief, Jekyeong had felt a profound sense of danger from those two birds. Had he encountered them, he would have been severely injured, regardless of whether he won or lost. Especially that creature with the bizarre beak... His vigilance, already razor-sharp, spiked to its absolute peak.
But then, an indescribable urge washed over him. It felt as though his entire nervous system was being forcibly pulled toward a single spot—the very place where the two monstrous birds had just clashed, where the defeated bird had spilled its lifeblood.
Sniff, sniff. An alluring scent wafted from the spot, drawing Jekyeong in. Was it a fragrance? No, it was something far more intoxicating than a mere scent.
‘What is this?’ Driven by an inexplicable force, Jekyeong slithered toward the spot. The guard he had kept so tightly raised crumbled completely. Gliding over the uneven ground, he reached the shallow crater. Splatters of blood, still fresh and wet, coated the earth. Wet blood. That was the source.
As if possessed, Jekyeong licked the blood. The blood-soaked soil slid down his throat, carried by his long tongue. It tasted as sweet as a draft of cool water to a man dying of thirst. It was incredibly refreshing. That refreshing sensation spread through his entire body in an instant, followed by a strange, profound sense of fullness.